Magritte

　　A sense of the amazing, the surprising, and the ridiculous in Magritte's paintings
 
　　It is impossible to overlook the influence of Rene Magritte (1898-1967) on contemporary art. His surrealistic painting turns the usual order of things ironically on its head, thus restoring mystery to a world that has lost its magic.

　　His work typically conveys a sense of the amazing, the surprising, and the ridiculous - but also the unsettling. Without a specific message, Magritte's paintings nonetheless speak to us, creating a connection between opposites on an associative level. Thus a dinner roll can with complete naturalness fly past a barred dungeon opening.

　　In discussing his art, Magritte spoke of 'inspired thoughts': he was indeed a painter-philosopher who thought in pictorial form and moved with seemingly playful lightness in the exalted atmosphere of his own imagination.

作者簡介

　　Marcel Paquet was born in 1947 in Jumet, Belgium. After obtaining his doctorate in 1978 from the Free University of Brussels with a thesis entitled "La Difference des Pensees de Kant et de Hegel dans la question de l'essence de l'art", he began work on a monumental "Encyclopedie philosophique de la peinture contemporaine". Dividing his time between Brussels and Paris, he has published a number of books on such subjects as Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Botero, and Hans Bellmer.